New Google+ design ‘adds depth’ to social stream

Google has begun rolling out a redesigned Google Plus that uses a card-like design to 'add depth' to the social stream.

The new design, which has a superficial resemblance to Pinterest, ditches the chronological list format familiar to current Google users in favour of varying size cards arranged three columns.

Senior Vice President Vic Guntora said that Google feels current social streams, such as those on Facebook and Twitter, lack depth: “This new stream is about design and depth”.

High-resolution photos will take up the full-width of the stream, too, but the key to the new design is a new way of handling hashtags to make them more prominent and add the depth Google is so keen to add.

The new Google Plus design automatically scans posts to add relevant links so that, when you click on the hashtag, the card flips to show other posts related to that topic without taking you to a new stream.

This system includes the ability to automatically scan photos you upload, so that landmarks (Google used the Eiffel Tower as an example) are tagged automatically. You can then view more photos of the Eiffel Tower straight from the post.